David Bronstein

David Ionovich Bronstein (February 19, 1924 - December 5, 2006) was a Ukraine-born Soviet chess grandmaster, one of the world's strongest players from the 1940s until the 1970s. Bronstein was described as a creative genius and master of tactics. He was also a renowned chess writer.

Bronstein won many prizes at tournaments, among which the Soviet Chess Championships of 1948 (jointly with Alexander Kotov) and 1949 (jointly with Smyslov); second place at the Soviet Championships of 1957 and 1964-65; he was a six-time winner of the Moscow Championships, and represented the USSR at the Olympiads of 1952, 1954, 1956 and 1958; he won four Olympiad team gold medals.
He also won prizes at Hastings 1953-54, Belgrade 1954, Gotha 1957, Moscow 1959, Szombathely 1966, East Berlin 1968, Dnepropetrovsk 1970, Sarajevo 1971, Sandomierz 1976, Iwonicz Zdrój 1976, Budapest 1977, and Jūrmala 1978.

He narrowly missed becoming World Chess Champion in 1951, and is considered among the greatest post-war players not to have won the World Championship (like Paul Keres, Viktor Korchnoi and Akiba Rubinstein). He drew the 1951 challenge match for the title of World Champion by a score of 12-12 with Mikhail Botvinnik, the reigning champion. Each player won five games, while the remaining 14 games were drawn, and under FIDE rules, the title remained with the holder. There have been rumours that Bronstein allowed Botvinnik to win either due to pressure from the Soviet authorities or for personal reasons, but these allegations have never been openly confirmed.

David Bronstein wrote many chess books and articles on his pioneering theoretical and practical work, as well as on chess history, most notably the book "Zurich International Chess Tournament 1953" (English translation 1979) dedicated to the legendary Candidates Tournament in Zurich (won by Vasily Smyslov, followed by David Bronstein, Paul Keres and Samuel Reshevsky) which was the last qualification step for the 1954 world championship match against Mikhail Botvinnik.